From the Richmond [VA] Times-Dispatch and the Lynchburg [VA] News & Advance.

Approximately 200 disability advocates rallied at Virginia’s state capitol this week to urge the governor to switch $43 million that has been set aside to renovate the Central Virginia Training Center and use it instead to move the center’s residents to smaller, community-based group homes.

Heidi Lawyer, executive director of the Virginia Board for People with Disabilities, said Virginia is one of the few states that clings to outmoded institutional settings for people with intellectual disabilities and ranks 46th in its funding for community-based services.

Organizers had said earlier that their first goal was to reform the center by moving its residents to about 100 homes, each with just three or four residents. An estimated 460 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and chronic illness live in the center.

Earlier story here: Advocacy groups demand CVTC spend money elsewhere – Lynchburg [VA] News Advance

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 2:59 pm and is filed under advocacy, group homes, institutionalization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.